Basics of Mapping
Hello to any new members who find this wiki interesting. Would you like to start your very own mapping series? You don't know what to do? Well, here are some basics on how you should start. This tutorial is for Windows users only (sorry Mac users). Selecting the map You can draw your own map and it doesn't need to be any real life place, it can be fictional. Though like most mappers, you should start with an accurate map that is based on the real world. So, you can either draw your own map or you can take a picture from Google or any other site that allows you to take these pictures. You can start with the map of Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Oceania (or just Australlia and NZ), Antarctica, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you like the map and you can create videos from that map. Making the episodes and the recommended program(s) to use. Now that you have a map, use it on any program where you can edit that picture. Programs like Paint, Paint.NET, or Photoshop will be the best choice. Now that the picture is there, many mappers usually color the countries (not the borders) with a green color, because temperate regions such as Europe are generally green (Though mappers generally colour all continents green). The borders can be white or black, but usually the borders are black. The sea is usually a shade of blue, or just white. To make a country talk, colour it in grey or white using the paint bucket and then use the text tool to write what that country is saying. You should write the words somewhere where it doesn't go over any land, so basically in the sea where there are no islands. If you want to make countries go to war, you need at least two countries (what a shock!) and you need to colour the attacking country in red and the defending country in blue (It can always be different, but this is what most of us do). The basic type of "war mapping" is that you color the opposing sides color over the other sides. In some circumstances, there can be a third or fourth faction. In these scenarios, they are usually coloured Yellow and Purple, repectively. Or you can use the more advanced style. In this style, you color the invading countries' conquered territory in a slightly different shade from their already present colour. This style is used so one doesn't need to redraw any borders. If a country completely collapses, color the area where they once were in a dark grey. The country's name is usually removed, because they no longer exist, and will either come back, be replaced, or colonized. The best program to map with is debated. Most us Windows Movie Maker, but it's not recommended. If you have a paid-for program like Sony Vegas, then use that instead. For animating you video, use each saved paint document as a frame, and move it to the program. Then, you use the transition crossfade for each frame. Tweak the frame's length and the crossfade's length based on how long it takes for you to know what's going on. This is to avoid confusion for the viewer.